Blackwell on Health: Journal blasts government for dropping cigarette warnings

The Harper government’s recent decision to drop plans for a new round of cigarette-package warnings raised some eyebrows in the public-health world, to say the least. Canada had been a world-leader in requiring graphic alerts on tobacco labels, an idea since mimicked by numerous other countries. But there is wide agreement that the warnings need to be refreshed to continue acting as a deterrent, and Canada has not done so in a decade. Now the country’s premiere medical journal has weighed in, calling the decision to drop plans to upgrade the messages misguided and dangerous.

The policy has not only wasted years of effort and millions of dollars of work within Health Canada on developing new warnings, but will undoubtedly lead to higher smoking rates, the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) argues in an editorial in its latest edition. The government has said it wants to concentrate its effort on fighting contraband tobacco. There is no “logical reason” that can’t be done in conjunction with overhauling the package warnings, the journal says. Canadians would be forgiven for thinking the Conservatives have caved in to pressure from the tobacco industry, the editorial says.

The journal pleads for Leona Aglukkaq, the federal health minister, to commit to regularly renewing the warnings:

We should all be outraged about the suspension of efforts to renew tobacco warning labels … Let us therefore hope that our elected federal officials hear and heed the many Canadians whom their senseless policy shift has disappointed and angered.